Cheng-ho: Thank you for posting the article on the potentially promising role of 6‐thio‐dG to address the telomere issue in cancer more effectively than the existing approaches. I am not a scientist and can't claim I have full understanding of the Imetelstat's mechanism of action, but I will go out on a lim and speculate that 6-thio-dG may have been possibly more effective than Imetelstat with the symptoms in Geron's MF trial due to its role in the lag effect. Is there any company running clinical trials on 6‐thio‐dG? It seems to me Geron should be on top of this to protect its future. I think this is important enough to bring up at the Shareholders meeting. Your two cents on my thoughts and concerns would be great. Thanks.

Kara, I have submitted so many questions for the shareholders meeting that I doubt any additional questions from me will be accepted but you raise some great points and I hope that you (or Cheng) will consider seeking clarification at the meeting. Thanks bp

Kara, Geron actually has at least one patent relating to 6-thio-G... this is just another issue that makes people who follow GERN lose SAN points. The specific MOAs of imet and 6-thio-G are very different, maybe they could be used in combo?

With all the GERN patents, why is Scarlett constantly trying to raise more funds for an "acquisition of another preclinical biotech company"?

Why don't they focus on the telomere-related field? But then, why did they give up on telomerase activation and decide to focus on the much more limited field of telomerase inactivation?

Even now, GERN still has a lot of biology locked in its patent file cabinets... but Scarlett doesn't think any of it is worth working on.

Bill, I think these are good points. Thanks for posting them. I speculate that Scarlett is searching for the best agent that will be synergistic with Imetelstat. We know that there is a practically linear response that is dose related but toxic levels and untenable side effects are problematic and limit the full potential of the drug. Therefore some mystical grail seems to be Scarlett's quest. Several combo's seem promising. Scarlett may hope to acquire one or else prove that someone else should acquire Geron for the same reason. Regarding telomere lengthening. The timeline would certainly be long were Scarlett to open the dusty file cabinets of Geron to resurrect this line of research. Also imagine the ethical implications. When CPR was first proposed it was met with horrified reactions because the will of G-d was being thwarted. Only the rich would likely afford to have their lives prolonged and they would likely see to it that a successful therapy had only a small circle of availability. The stuff of a great sci-fi story. Anyway, give it up. We won't see much in the way of telomere lengthening therapy (beyond plant medicine) for a while. Much more popular and lucrative over the short term would be an effective treatment for incurable diseases such as MDS and MF (absent BM transplant which has a high mortality/morbidity anyway). bp

Yes, the priests were horrified when smallpox vaccine let some children "unnaturally" live to adulthood, and they've moaned at every advance since. (Read about Ethan Allan's fight with the clergy on vaccination...)

Since I was immortalizing cells with vectors in 2001, I think you're a little out of the loop... look at Liz Parrish. Telomerase activation can't be "expensive" once it's developed it will be cheaper than most Medicare scam statins. (If it's a vector you only have to do it once!)

Read Bridge's report from the Annual Meeting... he says Scarlett isn't doing any work at all on improving imet or imet delivery. Period.